Amber Sekoll
EDC 102H
Dr. Fogelman
September 9, 2013
As a person with seventeen years of life experience, I could make an argument that I have become an expert at a lot of things- brushing my teeth, making a sandwich, pleasing my mother, and even typing a document- by doing these tasks over and over again. Out of the abundance of things I have become an expert at over my last seventeen years, one of the most meaningful has been mastering the sport of pole vaulting. A track and field event, pole vaulting requires a specific technique, immense training time, and visual preparation in order to be mastered. I began pole vaulting four years ago as a high school freshman, and it has taken a lot of work to get to where I am today.
My interest in pole vaulting was piqued by my high school's pole vaulting coach. Ever since the first day I picked up a pole, I knew I had a special love for the event; it seemed to just click with me. This deeply embedded passion combined with the unfailing support of my pole vault coach, my parents, and the head track coach have been essential factors to my success in the sport. It has also allowed me to master the "art" of pole vaulting; without my coaches drilling me at practice and my parents willingness to drive me all over the state of Connecticut and spend loads of money on my passion, I would not have had to resources available to become a master pole vaulter. Resources are vital to mastering the event- it takes the right facilities, equipment, coaching/training, and family support. These are thing's I've been fortunate enough to have had over the years.
While support and resources have been key factors to my training, I believe a lot of time spent at practice creates a strong foundation for becoming a pole vault master. The more time an athlete spends at practice doing sprinting and jumping drills, weight training, and actually pole vaulting, the more likely he or she is to succeed. It definitely takes an "athlete" to be successful at pole vaulting. Personally, I've spent more than 100 hours per month jumping, lifting, running, and doing drills, which I believe has been key to my success. All of those sprints in the rain and snow, those lifts when afterward, I could barely lift my arms up, and the afternoons where I just wanted to take a nap, but I went to practice anyway have really made a difference in my performance. I ended my first season of track ever with a personal best of 8 feet 6 inches. By the time I graduated high school, my personal best soared to 11 feet 3 inches. All of the hard work clearly did pay off.
One thing that I believe has been just as important as physical training is mental and visual training. In order to be successful in a competition (and even at practice), it is important to keep your mind as clear and focused as possible. It helps to visualize yourself clearing whatever height is your goal for the particular meet before and during competition. If you can visualize yourself achieving your goal, you've taken the first huge step towards succeeding. When your brain says you can do it, your body responds, and delivers the results! In order to be able to visualize a perfect vault, it is important to know what one should look like. That is why I've included video sessions into my training program. During these sessions, I compare video of my own vaults to videos of professional vaulters (Yelena Isinbayeva, Jenn Shur, Sergey Bubka). While watching videos of my own vault, I am able to see flaws in my technique and visualize myself fixing these flaws. After watching videos of the pros, my mind has a clear picture of what I should look like while vaulting, and I feel motivated to be as flawless as them.
In the near future, I plan to use my expertise in pole vaulting to jump as high as I possibly can in my next four years as a URI Ram! As for later down the road, I would like to share my passion and knowledge for the sport with young people by becoming a pole vault coach. Pole vaulting is a sport that is often overlooked, although it is slowly becoming more and more popular. I hope that in the future, it becomes a highlight track and field event with a lot of participants and supporters. I would feel very successful if one day I was able to inspire passion for the sport in a young athlete similar to my own passion.
Many people think that in order to become an expert at something, they must have "natural talent." I tend to disagree with this idea. Although I am aware that I am not a perfect pole vaulter (and probably never will be), I feel confident that I know enough about the sport, and can perform it well enough to call myself an expert. As for this "natural talent," I swear I haven't got any of it. It's taken me time, discipline, hard work, dedication, and a drive to give it my all for me to reach expert status. If one has enough passion and desire to perfect a skill, they can become an expert at anything.
EDC 102H
Dr. Fogelman
September 9, 2013
As a person with seventeen years of life experience, I could make an argument that I have become an expert at a lot of things- brushing my teeth, making a sandwich, pleasing my mother, and even typing a document- by doing these tasks over and over again. Out of the abundance of things I have become an expert at over my last seventeen years, one of the most meaningful has been mastering the sport of pole vaulting. A track and field event, pole vaulting requires a specific technique, immense training time, and visual preparation in order to be mastered. I began pole vaulting four years ago as a high school freshman, and it has taken a lot of work to get to where I am today.
My interest in pole vaulting was piqued by my high school's pole vaulting coach. Ever since the first day I picked up a pole, I knew I had a special love for the event; it seemed to just click with me. This deeply embedded passion combined with the unfailing support of my pole vault coach, my parents, and the head track coach have been essential factors to my success in the sport. It has also allowed me to master the "art" of pole vaulting; without my coaches drilling me at practice and my parents willingness to drive me all over the state of Connecticut and spend loads of money on my passion, I would not have had to resources available to become a master pole vaulter. Resources are vital to mastering the event- it takes the right facilities, equipment, coaching/training, and family support. These are thing's I've been fortunate enough to have had over the years.
While support and resources have been key factors to my training, I believe a lot of time spent at practice creates a strong foundation for becoming a pole vault master. The more time an athlete spends at practice doing sprinting and jumping drills, weight training, and actually pole vaulting, the more likely he or she is to succeed. It definitely takes an "athlete" to be successful at pole vaulting. Personally, I've spent more than 100 hours per month jumping, lifting, running, and doing drills, which I believe has been key to my success. All of those sprints in the rain and snow, those lifts when afterward, I could barely lift my arms up, and the afternoons where I just wanted to take a nap, but I went to practice anyway have really made a difference in my performance. I ended my first season of track ever with a personal best of 8 feet 6 inches. By the time I graduated high school, my personal best soared to 11 feet 3 inches. All of the hard work clearly did pay off.
One thing that I believe has been just as important as physical training is mental and visual training. In order to be successful in a competition (and even at practice), it is important to keep your mind as clear and focused as possible. It helps to visualize yourself clearing whatever height is your goal for the particular meet before and during competition. If you can visualize yourself achieving your goal, you've taken the first huge step towards succeeding. When your brain says you can do it, your body responds, and delivers the results! In order to be able to visualize a perfect vault, it is important to know what one should look like. That is why I've included video sessions into my training program. During these sessions, I compare video of my own vaults to videos of professional vaulters (Yelena Isinbayeva, Jenn Shur, Sergey Bubka). While watching videos of my own vault, I am able to see flaws in my technique and visualize myself fixing these flaws. After watching videos of the pros, my mind has a clear picture of what I should look like while vaulting, and I feel motivated to be as flawless as them.
In the near future, I plan to use my expertise in pole vaulting to jump as high as I possibly can in my next four years as a URI Ram! As for later down the road, I would like to share my passion and knowledge for the sport with young people by becoming a pole vault coach. Pole vaulting is a sport that is often overlooked, although it is slowly becoming more and more popular. I hope that in the future, it becomes a highlight track and field event with a lot of participants and supporters. I would feel very successful if one day I was able to inspire passion for the sport in a young athlete similar to my own passion.
Many people think that in order to become an expert at something, they must have "natural talent." I tend to disagree with this idea. Although I am aware that I am not a perfect pole vaulter (and probably never will be), I feel confident that I know enough about the sport, and can perform it well enough to call myself an expert. As for this "natural talent," I swear I haven't got any of it. It's taken me time, discipline, hard work, dedication, and a drive to give it my all for me to reach expert status. If one has enough passion and desire to perfect a skill, they can become an expert at anything.